Guild Wars 2

So, I was creating a brand new Norn when I thought: Hm, this guys needs some Russian name.

So I went for ?? ???, but, well for practical and obvious reasons, no Cyrillic. Fine.

But then I ‘anglicanised’ it to Vladimir Lenin. And guess what? Forbidden.

If it was Stalin, totally comprehensible, but what did Lenin do do be ‘inappropriate’?

He saved Russia from dirty czarism, took Russia out of WWI, protected Russia from foreign imperialism during the 1918-20 Civil War, planned Russian development…

He IS a Russian hero. As a Russian, I feel offended, really. And a bit sad that Cold War propaganda is still at full steam. Using an analogy, I bet you Americans you be kitten if you couldn’t have a kitten Warrior wielding an Axe called Abe Lincoln.

He was no mass-murderer megalomaniac like Stalin. And he died before the USSR became a despicable bureaucracy pit. Matter of fact, the only moment the USSR was good place was when he was alive.

No real people. No fantasy characters owned by others. No slurs. No a lot of stuff, go read the EULA and TOS.

Leon Trotsky.3674:

I bet you Americans you be kitten if you couldn’t have a kitten Warrior wielding an Axe called Abe Lincoln.

Actually I wouldn’t give a kitten and I’d be willing to bet most would not either.

“He saved Russia from dirty czarism, took Russia out of WWI, protected Russia from foreign imperialism during the 1918-20 Civil War, planned Russian development…”

It’s statements like this which is probably why they don’t want any real world people’s names. It’s a slippery slope no matter how you look at it. One person’s hero is another’s villain, and you can’t ever really tell which it will be until it’s put out there.

So what benefit is there to Anet for them to let you put it out there?

Meh, I am in History major (future unemployed).

The fun for me in MMOs is to make some brawny recreations of historical figures. Like my big bad Warrior named Winston Charrchill :Z

And well, I do not think that this:

“No real people. No fantasy characters owned by others. No slurs. No a lot of stuff, go read the EULA and TOS.”

is the case. This refers to real people that could claim ownership of the name, not dead people (nor conserved mummies like Lenin).

It’s probably also to cover them in case someone/someone’s family gets offended.

I guarentee you at least one historical figures descendants would be highly offended that someone was running around “pretending to be” their ancestor in a game. And who are they going to go after? Some random who will be virtually impossible to even find, or the relatively big (compared to that one individual) company who just put out a profitable game and are likely to decide a large out of court settlement is better in the long run than a public court case over something that wasn’t even their choice?

delmarqo.5038:

“He saved Russia from dirty czarism, took Russia out of WWI, protected Russia from foreign imperialism during the 1918-20 Civil War, planned Russian development…”

It’s statements like this which is probably why they don’t want any real world people’s names. It’s a slippery slope no matter how you look at it. One person’s hero is another’s villain, and you can’t ever really tell which it will be until it’s put out there.

So what benefit is there to Anet for them to let you put it out there?

The benefit of having ludicrously hilarious punny names around

Danikat.8537:

I guarentee you at least one historical figures descendants would be highly offended that someone was running around “pretending to be” their ancestor in a game.

Good for them?

So many Americans have their lawyers on speed dial that companies like this tend to be cautious about what they allow. They’d rather have one person mad that he can’t pick a certain name than a hundred lawsuits because he can.

I wanted to make a new Norn engineer that focused on the flamethrower and fire attacks. I was going to name her Mona Meatroaster because alliteration is fun and I used to know someone named Mona. Flagged as inappropriate. Here’s the fun part- it’s not for the reason you think because I tried Ramona Meatroaster and that was okay.

“Lenin was a good guy, a hero”

Not sure if OP is trolling… Hopes that OP is trolling…

I’m betting that lots of heroic real life figures’ names are blocked automatically. Don’t take offense at it, take it as a sign of honor and pride.

GreenZap.1352:

“Lenin was a good guy, a hero”

Not sure if OP is trolling… Hopes that OP is trolling…

Yep. I don’t know how far hagiography will get you as a history major.

Your reaction OP was not intended by the developers. They did not wake up a morning and thought “Ok guys by the way that name, Lenin, we totally have to not permit that one either”. It doesn’t work like that and the developers did not intentionally want to discredit, or disprove or involve themselves into past politics or “accomplishments” of past figures in the history of any given nations.

The rule is to basically restrict yourself as a player to create names of known people. You’re in a fantasy world, try to create a unique name. If not, then be vague if anything. You want to be called Lenin? Then don’t type it literally and just try to make it sound like it. Try something like “Leinyn” or “Lehninn”. You don’t have to remain completely literally accurate in the name’s spelling. The thing is that with “real names” most players only want to draw attention to them by doing so. If you were in a single-player game I guarantee you that there would be much less incentives to do things like that.

Anyway, use your imagination and type the name differently. If not, then chose another name. But to reiterate it’s not like ANet has anything “against” nor “about” Lenin or USSR or whatever. It’s merely a basic rule of character naming, but of course coincidence being that it affected you so you thought that suddenly ANet was doing that on purpose against Lenin or something? That is absolutely ridiculous.

Well when I tried to make a Charrman Mao, the name was reserved and Charman Mao was already taken. Leo Lenin was inappropriate. And so was the rather common woman’s name “Gayle.” It’s not a very advanced filter. Charrman Meow and Chairman Meow were also both already in use. So his name will be Nikola Tabby…

Leon Trotsky.3674:

Meh, I am in History major (future unemployed).

The fun for me in MMOs is to make some brawny recreations of historical figures. Like my big bad Warrior named Winston Charrchill :Z

And well, I do not think that this:

“No real people. No fantasy characters owned by others. No slurs. No a lot of stuff, go read the EULA and TOS.”

is the case. This refers to real people that could claim ownership of the name, not dead people (nor conserved mummies like Lenin).

John Wilks Booth and Adolf Hitler are dead too but i certainly wouldn’t want to see someone running around with those names . Historical names are banned for a reason

ExcretusMaximus.9120:

No real people. No fantasy characters owned by others. No slurs. No a lot of stuff, go read the EULA and TOS.

This.

Technically, anything other than a completely made up new name is against the rules. Yes, it’s ridiculous but it falls in line with the “you will play how we tell you to play” mentality of the rest of the game.

I saw some guy running around with the name " Dr.Spunk" the other day which apparently is a perfectly ok name. I imagine the filter is set to “American English” needless to say, here in England this name does not mean he’s plucky :P

Lukejoe. Gayle is forbidden so that people don’t try to impersonate developers since Gaile Gray is one of the more well known names. Colin and Johanson are probably banned for the same reason.

People tend to overreact and get too emotional in games:D
I for do not think oe person, who have done great evil, shoul have his name preserved. Abuse it as much as possible until it is just a name again.. Remember the act not the person, for it could be done by any man.

You could always be creative and make up a name instead of ripping off someone else’s name? Just a thought.

ExcretusMaximus.9120:

No a lot of stuff, go read the EULA and TOS.

Words, heh he.

The problem is that some people get offended easily. Heck, I’m sure a good part of the community would find ONE of these names offensive:

Adolf Hitler (ArenaNet would lose the Jewish vote)
Jesus H. Christ (Mormons would cut ANet’s president’s beard, if he ever grew one)
Mohammad (Virtual riots would result in the death of the Centaur ambassador to Kryta)
Killer Ghandi (Indian players would demand switching the /yes and /no emotes)

Why not come up with an original name for your character? It’s not that hard, and then the character becomes something that you can truly make your own.

As a history major you should know Lenin wasn’t actually his real name, just something he made up to fit in with the rest of the underground crowd. Use the real one if this great guy who’s done so well for Mother Russia appeals to you that much.

So, anyone noticed that the OP’s account name was “a real person”? Quite a controversial one too.

Commie lover! :p

I’ll post the same thing I post every time I see anything about censorship of any sort.

“Censure is willingly indulged, because it always implies some superiority: men please themselves with imagining that they have made a deeper search, or wider survey than others, and detected faults and follies which escape vulgar observation.”
~Samuel Johnson

“All censorships exist to prevent anyone from challenging current conceptions and existing institutions. All progress is initiated by challenging current conceptions, and executed by supplanting existing institutions. Consequently the first condition of progress is the removal of censorships. There is the whole case against censorships in a nutshell.”
~George Bernard Shaw

I seem to recall a succesfull lawsuit against CoH (read NCSoft) regarding a naming convention, using abstracted names even, of famous superheroes.

So you can’t blame them.

Gray Fox.4763:

I’ll post the same thing I post every time I see anything about censorship of any sort.

“Censure is willingly indulged, because it always implies some superiority: men please themselves with imagining that they have made a deeper search, or wider survey than others, and detected faults and follies which escape vulgar observation.”
~Samuel Johnson

“All censorships exist to prevent anyone from challenging current conceptions and existing institutions. All progress is initiated by challenging current conceptions, and executed by supplanting existing institutions. Consequently the first condition of progress is the removal of censorships. There is the whole case against censorships in a nutshell.”
~George Bernard Shaw

Oh just stop. You also didn’t have to agree to the EULA.

I’m against censorship too, but this isn’t it.

tolunart.2095:

I’m against censorship too, but this isn’t it.

+1,000 —- Tacking on an eloquent quote to a post about naming filters for a video game is absurdity as its best.

Feel free to name yourself “Lilkidlvr” or “Jerry Sandusky” though. I just sent an email about that Lilkidlvr guy. Reported it weeks ago and just saw him again last night.